Tesseract is a next-generation motion planning framework engineered for industrial applications.

‍Already using MoveIt2? Tesseract is designed as your next-generation motion planning framework—reusing your ROS infrastructure while upgrading your planning capabilities, optimization model, and environment representation.

MoveIt2 has been the default choice for ROS motion planning for many years, and it remains excellent for research, bring-up, and general manipulation tasks.

Tesseract is built specifically for industrial robotics:** production cells, process-driven workflows, and applications where trajectory quality directly impacts product quality and cycle time.

If you are starting a new industrial robotics project today, Tesseract is engineered to deliver on performance, maintainability, and optimization from day one.

High-Level Positioning

MoveIt2: general-purpose motion planning for ROS, great for bring-up, research, and many manipulation tasks.
Tesseract: a modern, optimization-centric planning framework engineered for industrial cells and process-driven workflows**—with the architectural choices, performance characteristics, and integration points to match.

Comparison Overview

The following table summarizes the key differences between Tesseract and MoveIt2:

Aspect	Tesseract	MoveIt2
Primary focus	Industrial process planning & optimization	General-purpose motion planning in ROS
Planning philosophy	Optimization-first (costs & constraints solved together)	Sampling-first, then smoothing / time-parameterize
Environment model	Scene graph + command history; easy cloning & replay	Central planning scene integrated with ROS
Collision handling	Contact-rich, continuous & discrete; designed for optimizers	Primarily collision checks for sampling planners
Integration model	ROS-agnostic core, ROS as an optional layer	ROS-native, deeply integrated into ROS ecosystem
Trajectory quality	Optimized for process goals (quality, smoothness, dynamics)	General-purpose collision-free paths
Extensibility	Plugin-based, standalone usage outside ROS	ROS middleware dependent
Target usage	Production cells, process quality, traceability & uptime	Bring-up, prototyping, broad manipulation tasks

Why Choose Tesseract for New Development

Tesseract is the recommended starting point when:

You are building new industrial robotics products or cells
Trajectory quality directly impacts product quality, scrap, rework, or cycle time
You need reproducibility, traceability, and auditability
You expect to scale across multiple cells, lines, or facilities
You need a planning core that can live inside ROS, but also in embedded systems or proprietary controllers
You want optimization-first planning where collisions, smoothness, and constraints are solved together

If you are starting from scratch, start with Tesseract.** You get an architecture engineered for industrial use from day one—without fighting framework limitations designed for different workloads.

When MoveIt2 Remains the Right Choice

MoveIt2 is still excellent for:

Research and algorithm development
Rapid prototyping and bring-up
Broad manipulation tasks where motion quality is not critical
Mature ROS integrations and ecosystem tooling you depend on
Teams already deep in the MoveIt2 ecosystem

Many successful systems use MoveIt2. If you're happy with it and your use case focuses on general manipulation rather than process-driven applications, there's no need to migrate.

Technical Differences

Trajectory Optimization**

Tesseract: Treats optimization as central. Plans directly solve for collisions, smoothness, joint limits, and process constraints as a single problem.
MoveIt2: Typically uses sampling (RRT, PRM) to find collision-free paths, then applies separate time-parameterization and smoothing passes.

Collision Information**
Tesseract: Provides rich contact data (distances, closest points, normals) designed to feed into optimization algorithms.
MoveIt2: Primarily reports binary collision/no-collision for sample validation.

Environment Representation**
Tesseract: Scene graph with command history. Changes are tracked and replayable, making debugging and offline validation straightforward.
MoveIt2: Central planning scene managed by ROS. Updates synchronized through ROS infrastructure.

Robot Description**
Tesseract: Parses standard URDF/SRDF files. Builds internal scene graph for efficient queries.
MoveIt2: Uses ROS robot models. Often requires MoveIt-specific configuration.

Migration and Coexistence

Already committed to MoveIt2? You have options:

Parallel Use (Recommended Path)**

Run Tesseract alongside MoveIt2 in the same system
Use Tesseract for specific processes or cells where optimization matters most
Keep existing MoveIt2 integrations for general-purpose tasks
Gradually migrate as you gain confidence in Tesseract

Key Migration Steps**

Load your existing URDF/SRDF files into Tesseract (works as-is in most cases)
Implement Tesseract planning for new processes or problematic operations
Validate offline that Tesseract plans match or exceed MoveIt2 quality
Deploy in parallel for specific applications
Standardize on Tesseract as your primary planning engine over time

Keeping MoveIt2 Infrastructure**

Tesseract works with ROS, ROS 2, or standalone
You don't need to replace your entire stack at once
Move at a pace that works for your team and cell operations

Getting Started with Tesseract**

If you decide to evaluate or migrate to Tesseract, start here:

Tesseract URDF Loading Example - Load your existing robot descriptions
Tesseract SRDF Parsing Example - Set up collision rules and semantics
Tesseract Collision Checker Example - Understand collision checking capabilities
Tesseract Scene Graph Building Example - Learn the scene graph representation

Visit tesseract_examples for complete examples and code walkthroughs. The Why Tesseract page provides additional context on architecture and capabilities.